Product Information

Publisher's Description

One day at a time, one prayer at a time, a busy working mother and playful six-year-old daughter transformed their bedtime prayers. They started rushed and tired. Distracted, "It's late. Let's go."

And then, gradually, something happened. A thank you here. A vulnerable moment there. The perfunctory prayers became . . . opportunities. "What did you do today? What did you learn? Anything else?"

Like a window into their relationship their prayers and reflections let us witness the growth, enjoy the childlikeness, and learn from their winsome faith. Discover how you and your child can find connection, humor, and a deeper understanding of God in the quiet last few minutes of each day.

This is an adorable book about a mother bunny and her three little bunnies at bedtime. It models a mother's love with "I love you to the toy box and back". And shows one of the little bunnies â€˜Bitty' modeling that love back.

Then we get to the "best part of bedtime" with "What do we want to say to God tonight?". I love that, that it models prayer that isn't rote. Not to say that there isn't a place for rote prayers, I taught some to my children. Bitty starts with praising God about her day and mother responds with "God loves it when you praise Him" and kisses. Then Bitty apologizes to God for how she treaded her sister and brother during the day with specifics, promising to try to do better and asking God to help her. Then Bitty prays about her grandmother, asking God to help her feel better. Mother bunny responds with "God smiles when we care about others". The prayer ends with Bitty trying to figure out how to thank God for all of her blessings throughout the day into one prayer. Than we have Bitty and her mother with another night time ritual of I love you to and back, I love you more, etc. The book ends with Bitty thinking about how much she loves her family and calling her mother back. Bitty says "I love you to God and back." Mother responds with "Then I am the luckiest mommy in the world".

I love that it models prayer with praise first, then repentance, then thanksgiving. You do get that prayer is ever changing due to what happened during the day.

Author Amanda Lamb set out on a journey with her 6 year old daughter, Chloe, to record one hundred nighttime prayers. Amanda used a digital voice recorder to capture Chloe's prayers and later transcribed them for this book. We read Chloe's prayers and then her mother's journal-like response to them. Amanda could see herself growing spiritually as she continued on this special journey with her daughter. She also felt that Chloe was teaching her how to be a better person and mother along the way.

From her prayers, I could see that Chloe loved people and spending time with them. I discovered that Amanda was a type A personality who was trying to learn from her daughter to stop and smell the roses. Chloe was thankful for everything. Amanda realized that she usually learned a life lesson or a spiritual lesson from her daughter's prayers.

I unfortunately found myself losing interest in this book after the first 10 prayers that I read. Chloe's prayers were always the same - she was thankful for everyone and everything that she encountered through out her day. When she didn't know what to pray her mother gave her suggestions. I am in no way criticizing Chloe's prayers, I think most people pray the same way everyday. If this book had a lot less prayers but still kept Amanda's insights on what she learned from Chloe I would recommend it.

These prayers and Amanda's reflections make up I Love You to God and Back. I have to admit this book did not end up being the book I set out to read. Each chapter could have been a blog post, and the story could have been read slowly over time. However, to sit down and try to read this book all at once was too much for me. I love you to God and back illustrates the significance of Bedtime prayer not only for children but parents too. It allows parent and child to reconnect after the events of the day. Amanda Lamb continues her journey into motherhood when her two girls reach school age and start asking questions about everything from politics to race to religion. They also start noticing things and want to talk about them. . It would have been nice if Lamb had even spent the least bit of effort to try and fill in some of the blanks. I feel she does a solid job laying out the story in a thoughtful and intelligent manner. Only one person knows.

I loved the title, and the concept is quite interesting as well. A mother starts recording her daughters nightly prayers, and we are invited to watch as both of their faiths grow before our eyes.

And it works, for a while. I found the first few chapters interesting, maybe as much as half the book. There is a good mix of child-like innocence, lessons learned by Mother, and spiritual insight.

However, it gets a bit repetitive. I guess the best way to explain it is that only the first 20 photos of somebody's new-born baby are cute. After a while you want to see something fresh. Despite the blurb, I did not see a great deal of development from cover to cover.

However I enjoyed it, and most of you probably will as well. Just don't expect it to be profound or life-changing.